The Long Road Ahead
by Fromtheotherside
Summary: Garrus Vakarian's love for Shepard has become undeniable for him until Shepard suddenly dies. He becomes distant and does things he normally would never do. How will he cope, and how will he react when he discovers that she has come back from the dead?
1. Chapter 1

**The Long Road Ahead**

_I do not own Bioware, Mass Effect 1 or 2, or any of its characters. This story is in Garrus's point of view, and just so you know, Shepard is a female, her name is Elizabeth, she is a vanguard, and a spacer. Some of the situations may be changed to fit in my story. I'm going to start near the end of Mass Effect 1 and hopefully continue all the way to the third one. Please tell me what you think. If you have any suggestions, do tell. Thanks!_

**Chapter 1 : Heartache**

The Normandy was grounded on the Citadel. Shepard was not particularly pleased with this, especially after all she's done for everyone. I watched her pace back and forth behind Joker in his pilot seat. He was yelling profanities at the screens in front of him while searching for a way to break loose from the locks holding our ship in place.

We were all on edge. We needed to get to Ilos as soon as possible or else Saren would use the Conduit and destroy the Citadel.

Suddenly, Joker stopped screaming and said, "Hey, commander, I just received a message from Captain Anderson. Patching it through."

Shepard stopped pacing to listen, and I listened as well.

"Shepard, I heard you were grounded. Well, I think I have a solution for your problem. Hurry down to the Flux. I'll be waiting for you."

When the message ended, Shepard sighed heavily and ran a hand through her dark red hair. I felt bad for her; she hasn't slept for 3 days with all this stress and Kaiden demanding her time and affection. To be honest, I hated that man. He tells her he loves her, but if he truly did, he would leave her alone for awhile so she could rest. Kaiden Alenko is sucking the very life out of her.

"Garrus, go fetch Tali. You two are coming with me," Shepard quickly told me, and then she exited the Normandy.

It was a good thing Tali came running up to me when she did; I didn't feel like finding her.

Out of breath, she asked, "Did the commander find out what to do yet?" She paused and looked around for Elizabeth. "By the way, where is she?"

I pointed towards the port side portal with a talon, and Tali gasped in horror.

"She left? I can't believe this! I have an idea of what to do."

"We've already found someone with a solution."

"Who?"

"Captain Anderson. He just sent a message. We're supposed to meet him at the Flux."

Tali glanced back at the port side portal. "So she's already talking to him then?"

I shook my head and answered, "No, she's outside waiting for us."

While we were heading out, I had to ask Tali, "By the way, what was your idea?"

She chuckled and said, "I thought that we should talk to Captain Anderson. I felt that he would have a solution."

As soon as we walked through the doors of the Flux, a familiar song blasted its beat all around us. I remember coming here with Shepard for the first time when we first met. Immediately after we entered, a smile spread across her face and she said to me, "This song sounds great." With that, she started to swing her hips and flail her arms. I sat back and laughed, enjoying the sight. My impressions of her changed then; she wasn't the cold-hearted soldier that everyone said she was, but a fun-spirited woman.

Captain Anderson waved us over to sit with him at a table in a corner of the club. He was accompanied only with a few drinks on the table waiting for us. Did his grand plan involve us all getting drunk?

As soon as we all sat down, he began to talk in a hushed voice. "Shepard, I think I know how to lift the locks on the Normandy."

Elizabeth took a sip of her drink and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

He quickly glanced at Tali and me, then said to Shepard, "All I need you to do is go back to the Normandy and tell Jeff to get ready to take off."

"Wait a minute," Shepard started. "What about you? What are you going to do?"

"In Udina's office, there's a console that can lift the locks on any ship docked on the Citadel. I can sneak in there and lift the locks from the Normandy."

The commander looked at her old captain with real concern and said, "I can't let you do that. What if you get caught? What if Udina is in there?"

"That's just a risk I'll have to take. Shepard, you know as well as I do that this is the only way."

A sigh escaped Elizabeth's lips, and she looked at Tali and me for us to agree to let Anderson do this. We both nodded.

"Alright, captain. Good luck." She stood and before leaving, she took a sip from her drink, then waved for us to follow her out the club.

Shepard, Tali, and I waited with Joker for the locks to be lifted from the Normandy so we could leave. Joker sat in his pilot chair, staring at the screens in front of him for any sign that the locks had been lifted.

Shepard began to pace again with her hands behind her back while Tali and I just stood and waited.

All of a sudden, Joker sat up straight and said, "Commander, the locks are being lifted. Time to get the hell out of here."

After we left the Citadel and used the mass relay, Shepard asked, "Joker, how long will it be until we get to Ilos?"

He pressed a few things here and there on the screens and replied, "Well... I'd say about six hours."

Elizabeth turned around to look at me and Tali and said, "You two need to go rest the whole time. I've decided to bring you along with me on Ilos. I'm going to be resting in my quarters if you need me, and I want you two to be up here ready when the time comes. No excuses."

We both nodded in agreement and she left us.

"Wow, I can't believe we're almost there. This...," Tali paused and looked down at the ground," This may be the end. I'm frightened."

"Tali." I wrapped an arm around her shoulders to comfort her, at least try to anyway. "We're going to make it. Saren and the Reapers are not going to win this war. Have some faith in Shepard and the rest of us."

"Well, I'll start preparing then. What are you going to do with your time?"

"I'm going to check my weapons and armor, then fix the Mako."

Tali giggled and said, "You should definitely fix the Mako, especially after Shepard's last excursion."

"Agreed. If you want to talk, you know where to find me."

I spent about an hour and a half of my time inspecting my armor and assembling my sniper and assault rifle. Shepard gave me this sniper rifle as a sign of our close friendship. It was the best in the market; no other sniper could match it. What have I given _her_? Absolutely nothing. I felt like a terrible companion taking things from her and never giving anything back. After thinking a bit, sniper in hand, I told myself that I have given Shepard something: someone to lean on during troubled times. Someone to listen to her when no one else would. Someone who would be at her side no matter what happened. She had only really needed me a few times. Not long ago, she needed someone to listen to her story about when she was on Akuze, and I was there to listen. She needed someone to talk to when her close friend Ashley Williams died. Shepard became depressed after her death; she wouldn't eat anything, and she stayed in her quarters most of the time. I was the one that helped her because I guess no one really cared that much except for Tali and me.

Exiting my quarters, I headed down to the cargo hold to work on the Mako. As soon as I entered the hold and began working on it, Wrex walked up to me with a huge grin on his ugly face.

"Liara was just down here to visit me. Strange, huh?"

"Sure is. Why would she want to visit you?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well, she came down to tell me something. Something that might interest you."

I stopped working for a second, wondering what Wrex knew. "What is it, then?"

"She told me that Shepard and Kaiden have been getting busy." He laughed in my face because he knew I cared, and he thought it was hilarious that I was interested in a human.

I struggled to contain my anger and sadness. My grip on the tool in my hand tightened, and my heartbeat quickened. She finally gave into him. That idiotic son of a bitch finally got to her.

Wrex saw my agitation and said, "Calm down, Garrus. It's nothing to get worked up about."

I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to crawl underneath the Mako and rot. "How does Liara know that they did that?"

"She said she witnessed Kaiden slip into Shepard's room, and a few minutes later, she... heard things."

Slipping under the Mako made me feel safe from Wrex's words and his criticism for me having strong feelings for Shepard. "Go away, Wrex. Don't you have anything better to do with your time than kill me from the inside."

"Bye, weakling."

After he left, I began to work on the Mako again. As I worked, I thought back to what my father always told me about humans: never trust them. They are only out for themselves, and never, ever get acquainted with one. They will always let you down. So far, my father's words were somewhat true, and I use to think that whenever he said that, he was just being a racist. I should have known that if I got close to Shepard, she would let me down.

Working on something for four hours really wears you down. My arms were limp and my back ached, but at least the Mako was fixed. As I finished underneath, I heard footsteps coming closer, and they eventually stopped on the side of the Mako. Thinking it was Wrex coming back to torment me again, I said, "Go away, Wrex. Just leave me in peace."

"Garrus?" It was Shepard's voice, and I felt like an idiot.

"What do _you_ want?" I asked coldly.

"Are you done with the Mako?"

"Yes."

"Well then, could you come out?"

"Shepard, don't you have anything better to do than bother me?"

My words left her in silence. I think I hurt her. Good.

"Please, Garrus. I just want to talk to you for a few minutes. Is that too much to ask for?"

After sighing heavily, I replied, "No, I guess not."

"Meet me in your quarters."

As she walked away, I wondered why she wanted to meet me in _my _quarters. Oh spirits, please don't let her pull anything on me.

I crawled out from underneath the Mako and unwillingly went to my quarters. Stopping in front of my door, I hesitated going inside. What does she want from me?

The door slid open and I entered to see Elizabeth, her back to me, looking at something in her hands. When the door closed, she turned to me and half-heartedly smiled.

"So," I began, "Why did you want to meet me in my quarters?"

"I wanted to talk to you in private."

Curious, I asked, "About what?"

Taking a step closer to me, she answered, "I wanted to give these to you." Shepard lifted a hand, and dangling from it was her shiny dog-tags.

I shook my head slowly and asked with hostility, "Why are you giving me these? Shouldn't you give them to Kaiden? He did just have sex with you."

Her blue eyes widened in surprise, and then I saw a tear slip down her cheek. Sadly, she told me, "I don't want to give these to him. I want _you _to have them. You've done so much more for me than he ever will." Closing her eyes, she began to cry harder. I have never seen her cry like this before, even after Ashley's death. Still, I was hot with anger.

"Then why did you do it? Why did you let him have you?"

"Because... because I thought my relationship with him would turn out better. I had hope. All I know is that if I die on Ilos, Kaiden will only remember me for one thing. You, on the other hand, will remember me for so much more. I've spilled all my secrets and life to you. I trust you, Garrus. If this isn't what you wanted out of me, then I'm sorry for wasting your time."

Elizabeth threw her tags to the floor at my feet and rushed towards the door, but I grabbed her arm and turned her to face me. Cupping her head in my hands, I looked into her beautiful eyes, blue as oceans, and said, "Elizabeth, you're not wasting my time. I will always cherish our friendship, and I'm sorry I hurt you."

She smiled, bent over and picked her tags up from the floor. "Here. If I die, you'll at least have something of mine to remember me by." Lowering my head, she put the tags around my neck.

"Shepard, I really don't need these because you're not going to die. I'm going to watch you and protect you with my life."

Suddenly, she wrapped her arms around me and embraced me. With her head on my chest. I stroked her hair. I wanted to kiss her; she was the mos beautiful being in the galaxy, and I needed her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Decisions**

"Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings from the surface," Navigator Pressly told Shepard as she watched Joker bring the Normandy closer to Ilos. "It's Saren all right. He's got a bunch of geth with him, too. I can't find a place to land, though."

I saw the agitation in her eyes as she looked at Pressly. "There has to be somewhere we can drop the Mako."

Looking up at his screens, he shook his head. "There's not enough room. We need at least a hundred meters to safely drop the Mako, and all I can find is twenty meters."

"We're going to go anyway."

"Commander!" Pressly yelled, "Please listen to reason. We can't do it! End of story!"

"I can do it," Joker muttered under his breath. If I could hardly hear him, I'm sure Shepard and Pressly didn't catch what he said.

"What?" Shepard asked him.

With pure confidence, Joker said, "I can do it. I can do it! Hurry and get into the Mako, Commander, before I change my mind."

I followed Elizabeth across the bridge, and Kaiden, of all people, came up to her and said, "I'm ready to leave, Shepard."

She pushed past him and said over her shoulder, "Sorry, I already have my squad picked out and ready to go." 

"I'm ready. And I want to go with you, Elizabeth."

That must have been the first time he called her by her first name because she stopped in front of the door leading to the stairs and turned to look at him. I stood behind Shepard, slightly pushing her towards the door so we could leave.

"Kaiden, we really need to leave..." she started.

"But Shepard, I..."

"Kaiden!" I growled. "We don't have time for this. We need to leave right now!"

Kaiden hardly ever became angry, but now I could see the fury in his eyes. Humans are so easy to read.

Shepard and I met Tali at the Mako. Tali asked, "So, are we ready to leave?"

"Yes," said Elizabeth. "Joker's going to drop the Mako down on Ilos so we can follow Saren." With that said, we climbed into the Mako, Shepard choosing the driver's seat, me the passenger seat, and Tali the back.

"Shepard, I don't know if you should be driving for this mission. You do have a tendency to wreck the Mako _every time _we use it," I said.

She gave me a quick smile and said, "Don't worry. As long as you have your seat-belt on, you won't hit your head on the roof if I flip it over."

We landed outside a closed bunker with no other way inside. Shepard cursed under her breath. Before we landed, we witnessed Saren and geth slip under the huge bunker door and we knew we had to do something and quick.

"Shepard," Tali began, "We have to get inside before Saren gets to the conduit."

"Maybe there's a security override somewhere," I said.

"Alright then, let's get out and look around."

After exiting the Mako, I discovered a pathway behind the Mako leading somewhere. I walked towards it and yelled, "Commander, I think I found somewhere to start looking!"

When Shepard and Tali met up with me, we all took our guns out and moved forward.

"Geth!" Shepard warned us, and we immediately took cover behind geth shields that were unoccupied at the moment. A barrage of bullets hit my shield, but it did not get destroyed. Elizabeth got out of cover to shoot and when more geth came into view, she ducked back out of the line of fire.

All of a sudden, two geth armatures came out of nowhere. Shepard looked back at me and Tali and screamed, "I'll shoot the geth! You two fire at the armatures!"

Quickly pulling out my sniper, I aimed at one of the giant heaps of metal and looked for a potential weak spot. There were wires leading from its legs to its head. That seemed like a perfect spot to fire at. Tali, on the other hand, shot the armatures head. In no time, we took that one down and it crumpled to the ground. The other armature was firing rocket after rocket at Shepard's shield. She hurriedly ran to a wall closer to me so she could hide behind something more solid.

"Garrus!" Shepard yelled as she winced from a rocket hitting the wall behind her. "Do what you did to the last one!"

Doing what she ordered, I shot at the wires again. This time, Elizabeth joined in on destroying the armature. Eventually it exploded, raining pieces of metal on us.

When the shower was over, Shepard walked over to Tali and me. "Was that difficult for you two?'

"Not at all, commander. We handled it just fine, don't you think?" Tali said.

"Absolutely. Keep up the good work." She paused to look around and view her surroundings. "I think we should split up to cover more ground. Tali, go left. Garrus, go down that pathway. I'll go right."

We disbanded and I headed down the pathway cautiously. There was a sharp turn up ahead, so I sprinted towards a statue of a Prothean on the turn and hid behind it. Quickly glancing over the edge of the statue, I noticed that there were no geth here and that it was a dead end with nothing but a few crates. What a waste of time.

Turning around, I went back to where we killed the geth and headed to the right where Shepard decided to go. After a little while of walking around, I found an opening with a statue in the center of it, the light shining down on statue, giving it a somewhat holy appearance. There, looking up at the statue, was none other than Elizabeth and Tali.

"Well, well, well," I began as I walked down to them. "What do we have here?"

Shepard whirled around and smiled sweetly. "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing but a few crates. Definitely not what we were looking for at all."

Pointing to Tali, Shepard said, "She found something. And we both think it will help us."

"What is it?"

"It's an elevator," Tali answered. "We were waiting for you to come so we could use it."

"What are we waiting for?" I asked. "Let's get out of here."

Tali lead us to a dark corner in the opening, and there in the shadows was an elevator. We went inside ,and Shepard pressed a button on the wall of the elevator. As we descended, we stood in silence, looking at each other. Finally, Elizabeth looked at me and declared, "This place is amazing. All the history. All the beauty. Ilos would make any historian drool."

"Your starting to sound like Liara," I teased.

"So? What's wrong will sounding like her?"

"Well, she... she takes her work too seriously. She never joined us for our little drinking parties, and she hardly ever leaves her hidy hole."

"Okay, so she may not be social, but she's brilliant."

"She doesn't even try to fit in with us. She just sits in a dark corner and listens to us having a great time."

"Maybe if we pulled her into our conversations, she would start talking to us."

"She's not normal, Shepard. You can't have a normal conversation with her because all she talks about is artifacts and her research," Tali said.

The elevator door swung open, and 3 geth poured into the elevator. Shepard slammed the butt of her gun into the leader's head. It's head almost completely ripped off its metal shoulders, but a wire kept it from falling off. As the geth's body fell to the floor, Tali and I shot the other two, and they were quickly added to the pile. We stormed out the elevator to find more geth roaming around what appeared to be the security station. When the geth saw us running toward a wall, they immediately began to fire upon us. The three of us got to the wall just in time.

Out of breath from the run, Shepard bent over to catch her breath. "Tali... I saw a... armature repair station. Get over there and... turn the armature on. Garrus and I will... cover you."

As Tali hurried to the console, I killed the geth trying to stop her. Shepard later joined in on shooting. When Tali reached the console, she ducked down and began to hack it. After killing only about twelve geth, it seemed there was no more here. Elizabeth stepped out of cover and walked around, gun raised and ready for a surprise, but there were none.

"Commander, the armature is ready!"

An armature stood, lumbering over Tali. She looked up at the machine, proud of her work.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Tali, but I don't think we need that armature anymore," Shepard told her.

"It's fine. It was good for practice." Tali looked across the room, then said, "Well, it looks like those stairs over there is where we should go."

"I agree," I said.

We ascended the stairs to find the security panel. Elizabeth approached it and pressed a few things here and there on it. "There, that should do it. Let's go find Saren."

As I was turning towards the stairs, a bright flash from the panel caught my eye. Looking over at it, I saw a hologram. It was clearly damaged because the image was flickering and the message coming from it didn't make sense.

"Shepard, come look at this."

She approached it yet again, but this time cautiously. As I tried to find out what the message was saying, I noticed Shepard was listening intently as if she understood.

I said, "I can't understand it. It seems like it's in some language I don't know."

Without looking at me, Elizabeth said, "It's in Prothean. The message is all broken up, but I can understand some of it. I think it's a warning about the Reapers."

"Is there anything important it is telling you?" Tali asked.

"It said something about the conduit, but everything after that I can't understand."

"We should get going then," I suggested.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's head back to the Mako."

As soon as we entered the bunker in the Mako, we saw pods lining the walls. It looked like there were thousands upon thousands in here.

"What do think are in those?" I asked Shepard as she drove and looked at the same time.

"If Liara was here, we would know."

"We don't need her. We can just make an educated guess."

Shepard laughed and asked, "Okay then, make an educated guess and tell me what you think are in those pods."

I though and I thought, and finally said, "People. Or bodies. Dead bodies."

She glanced at me to see if I was joking. "Okay. There are thousands and thousands of people, no, _dead bodies, _in those pods. Am I right?"

"Absolutely."

"I'm going to take your guess a step further. I think there are thousands and thousands of _Prothean _dead bodies. I mean, this place is Prothean, so there would be Protheans in there."

"No, they're just dead bodies."

"I'll make a deal with you. If there is only dead bodies, then I owe you ten credits. If there is Prothean dead bodies, you owe _me_ ten. Deal?"

"I can't refuse."

Suddenly, Tali screamed from the back. "Shepard, would you stop making bets and look where you're going!"

Up ahead, seven geth were running towards us. I wondered if they thought they could outmatch a wild woman in a Mako. Shepard swerved to the right and hit a few. The one's that were not run over shot at the back of the vehicle.

"Oh, shit!"

There was an armature blocking our path. Shepard looked at me, waiting for me to tell her what to do, but before I could say anything, she stepped on the gas, and the Mako lurched forward, heading straight for the armature.

"Shepard! No!" I yelled, but it was too late. As soon as we hit it, our bodies slammed into whatever was in front of us. My face smashed into a small console. For a minute, I lied there, stunned by the force of the blow, and the taste of blood filled my mouth. I could feel the Mako still moving somehow. Maybe Elizabeth wasn't hurt by the impact. I forced my head up to see what was going on, and that's when my head banged against the roof of the Mako. We were rolling. My seat belt was beginning to come apart, so I held onto it to keep it on. I closed my eyes to keep from vomiting all over the place. Then, suddenly, it was over. With my eyes still closed, I breathed in deeply, trying to calm myself. A hand grabbed my shoulder and shook me. I cried in pain and opened my eyes to see Shepard hovering over me.

"Garrus! Garrus, you alright?" She looked at my face and frowned in disgust. I must look really bad.

Shoving her hand away, I said, "Why did you do that? You could have killed us, damn it!"

Defending herself, she replied, "It was completely necessary."

"No, it was completely stupid!"

"What would you have done? Huh?"

"I would have went _around _it, not through it!"

"Would you two stop fighting! We need to go!" Tali interjected.

Shepard sat in her seat, strapped on her seat belt, and continued to drive. No one said a word to each other until we reached a huge barrier blocking our path.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Shepard hit the side of the Mako in frustration.

"Shepard," Tali began, "Another barrier just appeared behind us. I think we're trapped in here."

Elizabeth sat back in her seat and covered her face with her hands. "So we can't do anything," she said, muffled by her hands.

"Well, we could get out of the Mako and go over to that elevator and see where it brings us," Tali suggested.

We climbed out of the Mako and went into the elevator. When the elevator stopped and the door opened, we saw, in the middle of a massive room, a broken VI that flickered on and off. As we neared it, it began to talk.

"You are not Prothean, but you are not machine, either. This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. This is why we sent our warning through the beacons. I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you. Unlike the other that passed recently. Perhaps there is still hope."

"How come I can understand it?" I whispered in Shepard's ear.

"I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived. I have translated my output into a format you will understand. My name is Vigil. You are safe here for the time being, but that is likely to change. Soon, nowhere will be safe. You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years. To stop it, you must understand or else you will make the same mistakes we did."

The VI explained to us how the citadel was actually a mass relay that linked to dark space, letting the Reapers slip through. It also explained the Keepers and their role in everything. It told us about what happened to all the Protheans, and how the last ones left alive were in those pods, but it had to kill them to preserve itself. Its words sent chills down my spine.

"You must destroy the Reapers. You are the only hope. Take this data file. It will give you temporary control of the station so you can stop Sovereign."

Shepard took the file. I felt that there was absolutely no way we could stop Sovereign and the other Reapers, but I didn't let it show. Elizabeth, on the other hand, looked determined, like we actually had a chance. I wish I had her determination and bravery.

"There's the conduit!" Tali exclaimed from the back.

"I think it's beginning to close, Shepard! Hurry!" I yelled.

She stepped on the pedal and the Mako rushed towards the conduit. Geth were surrounding it. They shot at the Mako, but Elizabeth kept going, ignoring them. As soon as we entered the conduit, we were transported to the Citadel.

"Shepard, slow down!" I screamed.

When we landed, she tried to make a sharp turn, and she ended up flipping the Mako upside down. My head hit the top and almost knocked me out. Sparks flew everywhere inside as the top scraped the sidewalk. When the Mako stopped sliding on the ground, I crawled out of a emergency hatch and plopped onto the ground, breathing heavily. I didn't bother looking to see if Tali or Shepard got out; my head was spinning, and my body hurt to much to turn over.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something trudging over to me. After it moaned, I knew what it was. I tried to feel for a gun on me, but my arm touched nothing but armor. My weapons were in the Mako. When I tried to stand to get away from the husk, my legs gave out and I tumbled to the ground. Feeling hopeless, I lied there, waiting for the husk to kill me. Then I heard gunfire and a thud. Someone lightly tugged on my shoulder, flipping me over so I was on my back. I coughed and blood flung on Elizabeth's face as she held my head in her hands.

"Garrus, you with me?"

"I'm still here," I responded with strain in my voice.

She wiped the blood leaking out of my mouth with a hand. "You don't look so good."

I laughed, flinging more blood on her face. "How is it that you seem perfectly fine after two crashes?"

She smiled and stroked my sore face. "Luck, I suppose." She paused to look me over, then said, " Here, I'm going to help you stand."

As soon as I stood up, I became dizzy and almost fell again, but Shepard was there to hold me. "Take it easy, Garrus. Slow down."

"Where's Tali?" I asked, looking around for her.

"Over here!" Tali walked towards us from the other side of the flipped Mako carrying our weapons. There was a huge crack in the glass of her helmet. "Don't worry. I'm practically floating in antibiotics in here."

"That's good to know," I said with relief.

Tali looked over to her left and pointed. "Look over there. It's Avina. Poor thing. She's broken."

We all walked over to the AI. "Wel... wel... welcome to the Presidum... um... um. Do you... assistance?"

Shepard asked, "Who was here last?"

"A turian."

"Did he happen to mention where he was going?"

The AI flickered, then responded, "I believe... mentioned... Council Chambers."

"Of course. That's where the control panel is," Shepard said. She looked at me and asked, "Do you think you can make it?"

"I'll follow your lead no matter what, even if my intestines are hanging out and my..."

Elizabeth put up a hand for me to stop. "Okay, I get the picture. We don't need the nasty details."

"I like to make it sound more dramatic."

Patting me on the back, she said, "I know, I know, but right now we have to stop Saren. Let's get in the elevator."

When we were almost to the chambers, the elevator suddenly halted. I almost toppled over, but I held onto the side of the elevator.

"Damn it! Saren must have stopped the elevator." Shepard walked towards the front of the elevator with the glass and looked out at the Presidium.

"What are we going to do now, commander?" Tali asked with fear in her voice.

All of a sudden, Elizabeth punched the glass, putting a fist size hole in the glass. She kept punching the glass until there was a decent size hole to where someone could fit through it.

"What are you doing?" I asked, thinking she was crazy.

She looked over at me sheepishly and replied, "Taking a little stroll."

When I understood what she was doing, I rushed to grab her, but I was too late. She stepped out of the elevator and fell. My mind racing, I poked my head out of the hole to see Elizabeth walking on the side of the building.

"Come on you two. We have a job to do."

Tali and I, feeling better that we knew she did not just commit suicide, crawled out the hole in the glass and followed Shepard onto the building. It was exhilarating to walk on the side of a building.

We followed Elizabeth towards the chambers. Up ahead, I saw geth troopers coming at us. We killed every single one with ease.

"Shepard," Tali began, "look over there. It looks like a hatch."

Rushing over to it, Elizabeth opened it and allowed Tali and me to go inside first. When I landed on the floor, I glanced up to see that we were in the chambers, and geth were in here. Two on the stairs in front of me began to fire at me as I ran for cover. Shepard, being a biotic, pulled them into the air and slammed them into the ground. Tali shot three that were advancing on the commander. After finishing off the geth, we ran up the stairs towards the bridge. All around us, the once beautiful blossoming trees were now up in flames. I remember first meeting Shepard here. I was arguing with Executor Pallin over my investigation over Saren, and then she shows up with her captain. When Pallin left, she came up to me and talked to me for a brief period, but I felt a connection immediately. I wanted to follow her, and I was willing to quit C-Sec to do so. Feeling that connection changed my world. I'm stopping a Reaper from taking over the Citadel! Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think of doing something like this.

When we reached the bridge, we did not see Saren. Shepard kept her gun aimed at the spot where he should have been, just in case. Then Saren, making a somewhat dramatic appearance, rose on a hover board and whipped a grenade at us. We dispersed, jumping away from it. I landed on my stomach in front of Shepard, who was hiding behind a rail, gun raised and ready for action.

"I was afraid you wouldn't make it," Saren said with hostility.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Shepard said.

"Stop with the humor! I doesn't amuse me. You and I both knew it would turn out like this. You have lost, Shepard. In a few minutes, Sovereign will have control of all the Citadel's systems. Then the Reapers will return."

Elizabeth responded with, "I can still stop them."

He laughed at her courage. "You have survived so far. I have changed since our encounter on Virmire. Sovereign has... improved me."

"You let Sovereign implant you? Are you crazy?"

"I suppose I should thank you. After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking about what you told me. About Sovereign manipulating me. Sovereign could sense my doubts, so I was implanted to strengthen my resolve. Now I believe in the cause completely. Join me, Shepard, and we can assist the Reapers."

"Sovereign's controlling you! How can you not see that?" she yelled.

"I am the union of organics and machines. I have the strength of both, but none of the weaknesses. I am the future, Shepard. This is the evolution of organic life. Join us and be reborn!"

"I can stop Sovereign from taking control of the station. Step down, Saren, and the invasion will never happen."

"We can's stop them!" he growled. "You saw the destruction of the Protheans. The Reapers are too powerful."

"You know this is wrong! Fight it!"

I heard him pause for a second, thinking about what she said. "Maybe you are right. Maybe there is a chance... ugh!"

He screamed in pain. I quickly looked up from the floor to see him holding his head, digging his talons into his flesh. "I can't do this. Sovereign is too strong. It's too late for me."

Shepard stood then, lowering her weapon and approaching Saren on his hover board. "You still have a chance. Don't give up!"

He looked at her for a long moment, pain in his eyes. "Goodbye, Shepard. Thank you for everything."

Suddenly, he pulled out his pistol and shot himself in the head. Elizabeth gasped and rushed towards him, but before she could reach him, he fell off his board and into the glass below. Leaning over the rail, she looked down at his lifeless body.

"Shepard..." I started, but she cut me off.

"I'm going to try this on the console." She slowly walked up to it and used her omnitool to use the data. "It worked. I have complete control," she said over her shoulder. "I'm opening the arms to let the fleet inside to take care of Sovereign."

"See if you can open a communications channel first," Tali suggested.

Taking Tali's advise, she pressed a few things on her omnitool and someone came up.

"This is the Destiny Ascension. Our main drives are offline and our barriers at forty percent. The council is on board."

Then Joker's voice popped up. "Commander, is that you?"

"I'm here."

"We got the distress call. I'm sitting here with the entire Arcturus fleet. Unlock the relays so we can enter."

"We should send everyone after the Reaper. It needs to be destroyed," Tali chimed in.

I looked at her in disbelief for her ignorance. "We can't just let the council die! If they die, everything will end up in chaos. The council has been in existence for thousands of years. We can't just blow them off!" I told Shepard.

Joker said, "What do you want us to do, Shepard?"

"Send the entire fleet to stop Sovereign. We need to focus on it."

"Shepard!" I said angrily. "You can't do that!"

She turned back to look at me. "Why can't I? I'm not sacrificing thousands of lives for a couple of people that can be replaced!"

I shook my head, wondering how she could think that way. "I hope you know what you're doing, _human_," I spat.

She ignored me and said, "Make sure he's dead."

Tali began to leave, but I stared at Elizabeth for a minute. When she couldn't stand my gaze on her anymore, she dropped her eyes to the floor.

"Garrus, come on. Your commander asked you to do something, so do it," Tali demanded.

I dropped down first, landing roughly on the ground near Saren's body, and Tali followed. Pulling out my pistol, I cautiously neared his lifeless body. Aiming at his head, I pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through his skull. His head moved slightly from the force of the bullet, but nothing more. Using my earpiece, I said into it, "He's dead."

All of a sudden, the ground began to quake under my feet. Saren's body was then filled with red light so bright that I shielded my eyes. An explosion pushed me into a pillar, knocking the breath out of me. Glancing up, I saw that the bridge was collapsing, sending Elizabeth rolling down it to the ground below. Saren stood, the red light emanating from his body, and stumbled towards Shepard. Then his flesh seemed to melt, revealing a machine with glowing red eyes. It snapped its head to her, then jumped onto the wall with incredible speed. After pushing myself to get up, I hurried over to her and seized her arm to haul her up. Tali began shooting at the machine as it crawled all over the walls.

"Shepard! Get up!" I yelled. When she got up, she pulled her shotgun out and searched for Saren. He snapped to the ground and crawled on his hands and feet towards me, so I unloaded on him. Elizabeth shot him as he jumped back onto the wall, making him slip a short distance on the wall, but other than that, it didn't hurt him much. Shepard then pulled him off the wall with her biotics, sending him floating in the air. Landing on the ground, the machine fired rockets at us. We all took cover behind giant rocks that were placed here to make the place look nice. As soon as the barrage ended, I stood and shot at the machine's head, making it spasm. Elizabeth rushed over to its spasming body and shot it in the head. Immediately, it stopped moving.

"Good job, guys," she said as she looked down at the broken mechanical body. Then she glanced up and out the window. Her eyes widened, and she stiffened. Turning to look, I saw a piece of Sovereign floating straight towards the council chambers.

"Get out of here!" She commanded, and we all ran up the bridge. As I quickly descended the stairs, I looked over my shoulder to see the debris crashing through the window, and Shepard slowing down.

"Elizabeth!" I screamed, but then debris hit her, and I was next. All I saw after that was darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Alive**

The smell of smoke filled my lungs, choking me. After almost coughing out a lung, I opened my eyes to find that I was lying on my back with debris from the Reaper pinning my legs down. The chambers were filled with dark smoke from the fires that seemed to be everywhere. I had to get out of here before I burnt to a crisp. Sitting up, I pushed the debris off of my legs and tried to stand, but I collapsed back to the floor. Wait a minute, where's Shepard and Tali?

I frantically looked around me, trying to find a sign of either of them, but I had no luck. I have to stand up. Looking down at my legs, I yelled at them in my head. Come on, damn you! I slapped my left leg and pain shot up it, making me cringe. Bad idea. There was a fallen pillar near me. Maybe I could crawl to it and use it to help me up. When I reached it, I held onto it and slowly brought my legs up to stand. It worked, but I felt wobbly on my legs, like a young turian learning to walk.

Behind me, I heard shuffling of feet. Oh no, please don't be a husk. Glancing back, I discovered Tali shuffling towards me as she held her side that was bleeding. She looked up at me and stopped. "Garrus," she said weakly, "I don't feel so good." I noticed that the hand she held her wound with was slightly twitching.

"Just sit down, Tali. I have to go find Shepard."

She slowly sat down against a fallen tree and sighed, clutching her side. "She's probably dead. Don't waste your time."

"Don't say that! She's still alive."

Tali didn't respond. All she did was moan and clutch her side harder to stop the bleeding.

"I'll be back. Don't move from that spot," I told her, then I hobbled away as fast as I could, searching for Elizabeth. I started to search near where the bridge ended up, broken in half. As I was lifting some rubble, I heard voices behind me. At first I thought it was Tali talking to herself, but then I heard a male voice. Dropping the rubble, I turned back to see two Alliance soldiers along with Captain Anderson with Tali.

"Garrus! Over here!" Anderson yelled as he waved his arm. I began to limp towards him, but then something caught my eye. Under some rubble there was what looked like a finger. My heart raced as I thought of the worst. Ignoring Anderson's calls, I rushed towards it, and when I reached it, I removed the rubble to find Elizabeth underneath. Falling to my knees, I touched her bloody face to see if she would respond. She didn't. She was either dead or unconscious. Panicking, I put my ear to her nose to see if I could hear her breathing. A soft exhalation tickled me. She was alive! I knew it!

I gently picked her up and cradled her in my arms. She was heavy, so my limping worsened as I returned to where Tali was now being helped by a soldier. When Anderson saw that Shepard was not moving, he looked at me worriedly.

"Is she alive?" he asked as he came to me and peered down at her face.

"Yes, but we I need to get her to Chakwas or else she won't make it."

He motioned for me to continue on. "Don't let me stand in your way. The Normandy should be docked, and when you get there, make sure she takes a look at your legs."

"Will do, sir."

As soon as I entered the Normandy, Kaiden rushed over to me with tears in his eyes.

"She's gonna be okay, right Garrus?"

"Yes," I responded, "but she won't be if I don't get her to Chakwas."

When I tried to walk away, he blocked my path. "Let me take her. You're injured. You might drop her."

"She's losing a lot of blood, Kaiden. It will be quicker if I keep going." Not at all.

"Please, just let me have her."

"Kaiden, shut up and get out of the way!"

That shut him up. He quickly stepped out of my way and let me go on.

"Lay her on the operating table," Doctor Chakwas ordered as I entered the room.

I carefully placed Shepard on the table while Chakwas moved around the room to grab some things.

"I'm staying here," I told the doctor. There was no way I was leaving until Shepard woke up.

"Garrus, you're going to get in my way."

"Please," I pleaded, "I want to stay."

She looked at me, obviously irritated, but said, "Fine, but go sit down somewhere away from the table."

Plopping into a nearby chair, I watched as Chakwas cleaned the blood from Elizabeth's face, revealing cuts and bruises, yet she still looked so beautiful. My eyes lids began to feel heavy as I watched. I wanted to stay awake, but fatigue got the best of me, and I drifted off to sleep in the chair.

I woke to the sound of Doctor Chakwas humming. After yawning and sitting up, she glanced over at me from her chair at a desk and smiled. "You finally up, Garrus?"

"How long was I asleep?" I asked as I stretched.

"I would say about nine hours. Everyone visited Shepard while you were sleeping. She's still unconscious, though."

Standing up, I walked over to Shepard's bed and looked down at her. She seemed so at peace with the well deserved break she was getting from all the hard work she has done. Grabbing a corner of the sheet that covered her, I began pulling the cover off, but Chakwas yelled at me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

I stopped and said, "I want to see what you did."

"No. Absolutely not. She's completely naked under that sheet."

My eyes widened in surprise. Completely naked, huh? I dropped the sheet back down. "Sorry. Didn't know. What damage did she have?"

"Elizabeth had three broken ribs, a broken arm, a bone fracture in her left leg, a concussion, and various cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over her body, but nothing I couldn't handle."

"So Kaiden was here? Did he get overemotional like always?"

Chakwas glared at me. "Yes, he did cry a bit, but it is understandable. He is in love with her, and has been ever since he met her in the Alliance."

Yeah, right. "Sure he has. I bet he just wants to be with her so he can say he was with the woman that saved the Citadel."

"How dare you! You wouldn't know what love looked like even if it was standing right in front of you! You never loved anyone, so you can't judge their relationship like that!"

Never loved anyone? I'm in love with someone right now, you stupid human! I'm in love with the woman that is under that sheet, unconscious! I wanted to say all those things to the doctor, but I didn't want anyone to know my feelings towards Shepard. Besides, humans and turians were never meant to be together, right?

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "Maybe he is in love with her for a legitimate reason."

"Of course he is. Now go away before I loose my temper."

"I think I'll stay for a little bit longer, if you don't mind."

She sighed and said, "Do whatever you want."

I pulled up a chair next to Shepard's bed and sat. After a while of staring at her face, I reached under the sheet, found her cold hand, and held it between my hands. Chakwas looked over at me, curious of what I was doing. When she saw me holding her hand, a quizzical expression crossed her face, but she eventually went back to what she was doing. I decided I was going to sit here like this until she woke up.

The door to the room opened and Kaiden walked in. Chakwas turned around in her chair and greeted him with, "Hello, Kaiden. If you're wondering, she still isn't up yet, but I expect she will be up shortly."

Kaiden looked down at me with her hand in mine and asked, "Why are you still here? Shouldn't you be down in the cargo hold fixing the Mako like you always do?"

"I have plenty of time to do that later. Right now I am waiting for Elizabeth to wake up."

"You have been here long enough. I think it's about time you go now."

"You can't tell me when I should leave. I'll stay here as long as I need to, whether you like it or not."

"Garrus, get out of here! Why do you have to be so stupid?"

I stood, appearing as menacing as I could. "You had better turn around and walk out of here as fast as you can before I rip all your intestines out of your asshole!"

"That's enough!" Chakwas intervened. "Both of you get out of here at once!"

I stormed out of there as quickly as I could. I wished that I could kill Kaiden, but I was afraid that Shepard would hate me for it, so I decided to keep him alive for now. My peaceful escape from it all was the cargo hold. The Mako looked... well, it looked pretty bad. To me, it looked like a pile of metal that was smashed thousands of times. Elizabeth sure knows how to wreck things. I sighed and walked over to it to fix the old thing.

As I was working, I thought about all the times Shepard would come down here and chat with Ashley when she was still alive. I would be an eavesdropper while working on the Mako and listen to what they would talk about. They talked about their families, they talked about relationships, and they also talked about their religion, which interested me the most. They both believed in God, which I have no idea who or what that is. I also remember them talking about what happens after someone dies, that you either go up or down. Shepard also mentioned something about angels and how they were watching over us to protect us. I would have never thought that Elizabeth was a religious woman, but she surprises me everyday.

I needed to quit working on the Mako; it gave me too much time to think of things that I didn't want to think of right now. I needed to talk to someone that could talk all day about nothing important. That person would be Tali. Dropping my tools on the ground in front of me, I walked to the drive core room, where I expected her to be, and long behold, there she was, leaning over the railing, staring at the core. She must have had the operation on her side already.

"Hey, Tali. Got a minute?" I asked when I was right next to her.

She slowly turned her head to look at me and said, "I suppose. I'm still a little shaken from our ordeal on the Citadel, the whole Saren and Reaper thing."

"How's the side?"

She straightened to show me where her wound use to be. "I'm doing okay for now. It's a little sore, though." After glancing around, she asked, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Chuckling, I responded, "What, I can't make small talk with you?"

"You never make small talk with me. It's always important things that we talk about."

"Alright," I agreed. "I'm slightly angry right now."

"Why is that?"

I leaned against the rail and looked up at the drive core as I spoke. "I'm not too pleased with Elizabeth's relationship with that bastard."

"Garrus, they really like each other. Leave them alone."

Clenching my fists, I said, "He doesn't deserve her! Elizabeth needs someone greater than _him_."

"And... who do you propose is great for Shepard? Hmm?"

I was about to say something, but I stopped. Was I really going to say myself?

Tali tapped her foot on the floor, waiting for a response. "Who, Garrus? Come on. Spit it out."

"Well, she needs someone who will stand by her no matter what, someone who would be willing to risk their own life to save her, to be not only her best friend but a mate too."

"So you're talking about yourself, am I right?"

I was quiet.

"I knew it!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. "I knew it! I knew it!"

I turned around to look at her. I'm glad no one was in here to hear her. "Now, Tali, don't draw any conclusions..."

She squealed and jumped at me, wrapping her arms around me, hugging me as hard as she could. "Garrus and Elizabeth. Garrus and Elizabeth," she repeated into my shoulder.

Pushing her away, I said, "Tali, listen..."

"How long?" she interjected.

"How long what?"

"How long have you been in love with her?"

"Since I met her on the Citadel."

She squealed yet again. "That's so cute! When are you going to tell her?"

"I... what?"

"You have to tell her, you know."

Shaking my head, I said, "No. I'm never going to tell her."

"Why not? She needs to know."

"No she doesn't. It would be... awkward. I mean, she's a human, and I'm a turian. Those kinds of relationships never work out."

"You never know until you try, Garrus. Whoever told you that is wrong."

"My father said that," I growled.

"He's wrong. Would you at least give it a chance?"

I thought about it. What could really happen if I told her? She could be disgusted, slap me in the face, and order someone to kill me. Nah, not likely. "Fine, I'll tell her."

She clapped her hands together in excitement. "You should do it when she wakes up. It would be a nice surprise."

"No, I'm going to do it when I feel like it. And don't go around telling anyone about this."

"I won't. But I will tell _you _something Shepard told me once."

"What's that?"

"One day, Shepard and I were chatting away because we always do, and..."

"Get to the point," I interrupted.

"She said that she thinks you're a real bad-ass."

That made me stand up straighter. "Really?"

"Yes. So you should go visit her and see if she is awake."

"Don't rush me, Tali." I turned towards the door and sighed. "I'll go see if she's awake."

When I entered the medical room, I noticed that the lights have been dimmed. Probably for Elizabeth. Then I saw her, standing in front of her bed with her back to me and with no shirt on. Her back was covered in bruises and cuts. She must have known someone was here because she snatched her shirt off the bed and slipped it on.

"Elizabeth, it's good to finally see you up."

Shepard turned around, her face slightly swollen and bruised. She smiled with tears in her eyes, then rushed to me and embraced me. I held her as softly as I could because I didn't want to hurt her now fragile body.

With her head on my shoulder, she whispered, "Thank God you're alive. I didn't know if you were dead or not; Chakwas wouldn't tell me."

"I thought I lost _you_," I whispered into her ear. "When I found you under rubble, I was afraid that you were dead."

She let go of me then and stood in front of me, her eyes on mine. "I'm sorry, Garrus."

Perplexed, I asked, "Sorry for what?"

Averting her eyes down to the floor, she said, "For almost getting you and Tali killed."

"We both knew that that would be something we had to accept when we joined you, Elizabeth."

Shepard giggled and looked back up into my eyes. "You're the greatest."

"Shepard!"

I turned around to find Tali standing in the doorway, probably here to see if I asked or to encourage me.

"Oh, Tali!" Elizabeth opened her arms wide, inviting a hug from Tali. Of course, Tali accepted.

When they finished, I said, "Tali told me not to look for you. She said it was a lost cause."

Shepard looked at her, stunned. "Tali? Why?"

"It would be hard for someone to survive that. Since you were the one closer to the debris' impact, I thought it would have killed you for sure. It was a miracle you survived, Commander."

"That is true," Elizabeth agreed. "I'm glad I'm still alive to see you two."

Hopefully mostly me. I smiled at that thought.

We stood in silence for a bit, then Shepard said, "I should go talk to Joker and see if Anderson sent a message."

As she slowly walked out the door, I watched her. She was still beautiful even with bruises and cuts. I couldn't wait to see what was in store for us next.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Closer**

Shepard announced over the comm system that Anderson and Udina wanted to meet with her on Earth to discuss important matters. I was in my quarters at the time, lying on my bed with my arms behind my head. She said that she was going alone and that the meeting may be awhile.

What was a turian to do when he is bored and the one he loves is away? He could stare at the ceiling like I am right now and twiddle his talons. He could work on the Mako like he has almost everyday of his sorry life. Spirits, I needed a hobby.

Instead of doing something productive, I decided to watch something on the vid screen. I got up and sat down in front of the desk in the corner of my quarters and turned the vid screen on. The first thing that came up was a video of the Citadel Tower in flames. A human newswoman was talking about what happened there, then she began to talk about Elizabeth. The video of the tower changed into a picture of Shepard. In that picture, she looked so young. Glancing down at the bottom of the screen, I read that the photo was taken when she first joined the Alliance. I paused the show to zoom in on her face. She looked fresh, awake, like she had no troubles in her life. For a moment, I wished I had known this beautiful woman from that time.

Unpausing the news, I continued to watch the coverage of the Citadel for another hour, then slipped into bed to sleep.

I woke to the sound of my stomach growling at me. Giving in to it, I went to the dining area to get some nutrient paste. While I was bent over searching for paste in our giant fridge, someone from behind me said, "Nice ass, Garrus."

I turned to discover Elizabeth in a very short red dress leaning against the counter nearest me. I began to salivate.

She smiled a mischievous smile and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Nutrient paste."

Pushing me aside, she bent over to get the paste for me. Watching her bend over made me want to do something very naughty, but instead I just stared.

When she handed me a tube of paste, she told me, "Don't eat too much. We're going out."

"Where are we going?"

After closing the fridge, she said, "We're all going to a club on Earth to celebrate our success."

"We can celebrate here on the Normandy."

Taking a step closer to me, Elizabeth said, "Don't you want to show everyone your cool dance moves?"

I chuckled. "Shepard, you know I can't dance."

"Well then, you could show everyone your awesome drinking skills."

"Alright, I'll do that then, but I don't think you should be drinking."

Leaning against the counter again, she looked at me with one brow raised. "Why not?"

"Considering you just had surgery and are not fully healed yet, I would say you shouldn't be drinking."

Elizabeth reached out and gently stroked my mandible. "Why is my health so important to you all of a sudden?"

"I've always cared about you... and your health."

After stroking my mandible one last time, she turned around and slowly began to leave, swinging her hips more than usual. When she reached the door, she stopped and looked over her shoulder to say, "Wear your civilian clothes. And be ready to party in an hour." Then she slipped out the door.

Pulse. That was the name of the club Shepard decided to go to. Everyone, and I mean everyone on the Normandy, tagged along to celebrate our victory.

The first thing I noticed about this club was that it was extremely dark inside with only a few colored lights for the dance floor and small lights above tables. In the center of the club was the dance floor with the bar on the left side of me and asari dancers on the right. Since I had no place on the dance floor and didn't care for a dancer, I immediately grabbed a seat at the bar. A young salarian was the bartender here.

"Welcome to Pulse." When he said Pulse, he raised his arms as if this club was the most amazing place. "What can I get for you?"

"Turian ale, please."

While he was making my drink, I watched as most of the crew danced and a few select men, like Jeff, watched an asari dance. Like usual, Liara was seated at a table alone in a dark corner.

"Here you go, sir."

Turning around, I took the glass and sipped a small amount of ale. It felt great tingling all the way down my throat.

Elizabeth sat down next to me and ordered a drink. A strong one, too.

"So, why aren't you on the dance floor?" She asked after she drank all of her drink and ordered another.

"Shepard, I'm sure you've been to many clubs in your lifetime and have seen turians dancing. We weren't made to dance."

"I'll get you to dance one of these days." She knocked back another drink, then left me alone at the counter to dance.

Time flew by as I drank and drank and began to get tipsy. After my sixth glass, my head began to throb and I felt like vomiting. I quickly asked the bartender, "Where's the mens' room?"

He pointed towards a dark hallway near where Liara was being a party pooper. "Down that hall, sir."

I took another drink of my ale, and for some reason my vomiting feeling disappeared, so I stayed seated to drink some more. Curious, I asked the salarian, "What else is down that hallway?"

"The private rooms. You can only order those rooms by appointment, though."

A hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to look at them. Of course, it was Shepard. And she was clearly very drunk. "Come on... uh... Garrus! Come dance crazy with me!"

I took her hand and she led me to the dance floor, but I almost fell down a couple of times, and so did she. Being her, she led me to the middle of the floor to where everyone here could see me dance. Shepard began to rock her head to the music and pump her arms.

"Uh... Elizabeth?"

She stopped and swayed a little. "What do you want now?"

"Can we go somewhere else? I don't want everyone to see me dancing."

She muttered something, then said, "Fine then. Come on, you big baby."

We left the others and went to a nice dark corner. As soon as we got there,Shepard began to dance really close to me and dance really... well... sexy. She wrapped her arms around my neck and swung her hips in a circle. If I was sober, I would have thought the dance was outrageous, but being drunk, it turned me on. I began to dance as crazy as I could to impress her, and it worked. She laughed at first, but then joined in, mimicking every move I made. I bet we looked like idiots.

Suddenly, she stopped to take my hand and tugged me towards the dark hallway. "Shep, we can't go down there. It's private." She ignored me and kept going, me stumbling and tripping over nothing. Once we were inside the hallway, I could hardly see anything, but I could faintly see her. She backed up against the wall and tugged me closer. Then, out of nowhere, I felt her lips touch my neck. She kissed all the way up my neck, up to my mandible, then her lips touched my rough lips. My heart began to race. I wanted more of her. Lightly pushing her against the wall, I nipped her neck affectionately. She moaned in my ear, arousing me. I then heard footsteps.

"Goddamn it!" I was shoved to the floor and hit my head on something. Shepard yelled at someone, and I vomited on myself. Then I passed out.

When I woke up, I realized that I was in my quarters, lying on my bed. My head was throbbing from drinking so much last night. Turning onto my side, I looked over the edge of my bed. A bucket full of vomit was on the floor next to the bed. The smell of it was so overwhelming that I had to get out of this room.

The dining area was full. Well, full with four people, but our dining area was very small. Shepard was eating while Kaiden sat next to her and Tali across from her. Joker was seated at the counter, sipping a cup of coffee while reading something on his datapad.

Jeff lowered his datapad and stared at me while I walked over there to get something to eat. "I heard what happened last night, Garrus. You're an animal!"

Kaiden huffed and said, "Jeff, what he did last night was disgusting. He took advantage of Elizabeth while she was drunk."

"It was my fault, Kaiden," Shepard intervened. "I lead him back there. I started it. We were both drunk and didn't know any better."

"If you would have just stayed with me all night, none of that would have happened."

"If she would have stayed with you all nights, she would've been bored to tears," I said as I took a seat next to Joker at the counter.

"Really? She likes to spend more time with me than with you."

"Oh, Keelah," Tali said, clearly annoyed. She pointed at Kaiden and told him, "Please shut up and stop acting like a small child."

"I'll just be on my way then." He quickly gave Shepard a peck on the cheek and left.

Joker laughed hysterically as soon as Kaiden had gone. "Jeez, Tali, you're in a bitchy mood today."

"I just can't stand that guy! How do you put up with him, commander?"

Elizabeth sat there for a moment, thinking. Then she responded, "Well, he's not all that bad. He's a really sweet guy."

"Heh. Hardly." Tali crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.

"This big guy right here is sweet too, commander." Jeff elbowed me lightly in the side and laughed some more.

"I know that," she said as she looked at me with a slight smile on her face. "That's why we are such great friends."

After that, Joker hobbled away to work on a few things, and Tali followed him to do her own. It was just me and Shepard, sitting silently across the room from each other.

"I'm sorry about last night, by the way," Elizabeth apologized.

"Don't worry about it. You didn't mean to do it."

"Of course." She stood and walked towards me to take a seat next to me. "When I attended that meeting with Anderson, I had to choose whether or not I wanted him or Udina to become a councilor to represent all of humanity in the council."

"Who did you choose?"

She gave me a funny look and said, "My old captain. He told me he was proud to serve in the council, even though he's not the type to do that kind of work."

"Hopefully he does well."

"I hope so, too. I also received a new objective. We are to search for geth across the galaxy and destroy them."

"Shepard, you know that the geth aren't the main problem."

"I know, but it won't hurt to eliminate them."

"When do we start?"

"Right now. No use in waiting."

"True. I'll follow your lead, commander."

She smiled shyly and said, "I'm glad to have you by my side."

Three weeks have passed since Shepard got the order to hunt geth across the galaxy. In that time, Elizabeth and I have gotten closer. She has been spending more time with me than with anyone else, including Kaiden. Also, I have been thinking about becoming a Spectre. There was no way I was going back to Citadel Security. The only reason I joined was to make my father notice me. He loved my brothers and sister to death, but me, not at all. I could never please him, no matter what I did. I thought that if I followed in my brothers' footsteps, he would love me as well. I was wrong.

I had to tell Elizabeth of my decision to become a Spectre... if I could find her, that is. For the past week, she has been running around the place, barking orders and leaving unexpectedly. While I was reading some data in the dining area after my lunch, Tali walked in and sat next to me.

"If you want to catch her, Garrus, she is in the conference room as we speak." She knew about what I was going to ask Shepard. I have been talking about this to her on and on, and I think she has been getting quite annoyed.

I rushed to the conference room, hoping to catch her in time before she left. Thankfully, she was still there, but she was sitting and talking to Captain Anderson. As soon as I entered, they both looked at me in surprise, probably because I was huffing and puffing. Anderson stood and exited the room, leaving me standing there, waiting for Shepard to ask me to sit or something. Finally, after a while of me standing there looking like an idiot, she smiled and patted the chair next to her.

"Take a seat, Garrus. I don't like you just standing there." She chuckled under her breath as I quickly moved across the room to sit. She turned to me, her piercing gaze fixed on me. "Tali has been telling me that you wanted to talk about something. Whats on your mind?"

At first, I hesitated. Was this really what I wanted? I mean, being a Spectre is a big responsibility, something I'm not sure I can take. Don't_ worry. If it's with Elizabeth, its well worth it. _She waited patiently for me to begin. After what felt like an eternity, I finally said, "Shepard, I've been thinking about this for a very long time, and I just wanted to get your opinion on this, but... I've been thinking that maybe..." _Garrus, come on! _"Well, after being with you through all this, I mean Saren and the Geth, I have decided that I want to try to become a Spectre."

Her eyes widened at the word "Spectre." _She doesn't think you can do it... _''Garrus, I..."

"Let me finish." I cut in. " I know you may not think I'm worthy enough..."

Two of her fingers went to my lips, silencing me. "Garrus, let _me _finish. I was going to say that I think you should go for it."

I couldn't speak. I never thought she would support this.

"You have to have a Spectre instruct you. I can talk to Anderson about this and get his opinion."

"You see, Shepard, I was wanting _you_ to do it. No one else."

She gave me a look that said, _You cant be serious. _A chuckle escaped her lips, and she shook her head, as if in disbelief. "Don't you want someone with more... experience?"

"You're the only person I want to take orders from," I said truthfully.

A smile played at the corner of her mouth, and she looked down at her knees, embarrassed. "If that's really what you want, I'll be happy to do it." She glanced up, her blue eyes sparkling. "I'll put in a recommendation for you tonight, and hopefully we get word soon of their approval." Elizabeth paused, then asked, "Does this mean you're going to want your own ship?"

I laughed. What a joke! "No, I don't. I think I'll just stay under your wing for a while."

"Fine by me."

That night, lying in my bed, I thought of what my Spectre training would be like and how hard it would be. Then I thought of Elizabeth. I thought of the looks and the touches she gives me. And how every time she looks me in the eyes, I melt. _She doesn't feel the same about you though. _It was probably the truth. But I love her so much. She is the only one that has ever made me feel this way, so weak at the knees. _That's it. I'm going to tell her. I'm going to tell her that I love her. _I can't. Kaiden has already won her heart...

_Those looks... She must feel something for me..._ I'm going to tell her tomorrow, after I finish working on the Mako. Who gives a damn if Kaiden is with her. They're not married, so I can still have a chance.

My resolve is now strengthened. _I can do this. I need her with me._


End file.
